Graham Contemporary Technique- Research

 

Martha Graham was an American modern contemporary dancer and choreographer. Graham had a unique influence and interest in dance and it was very much compared to influential figures and their influences such as Picasso, Stravinsky and Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

Martha Graham was born 11th May 1894 in Allegheny City. Her family were not of a dance background, nor did her mother and father encourage it.

 

In 1925, Graham was employed at the the Eastmen School of Music whereby she and Rouben Mamoulian composed a short film which was called The Flute of Krishna, and this featured Eastman students.

 

One year later in 1926, the Martha Graham Centre of Contemporary Dance was established. On 18th April 1926, Martha Graham had debuted her very first independent concert, consisting of 18 short solos and trios that she had choreographed herself. This performance had taken place at the 48th Street Theatre in Manhattan. Later that year on 28th November, Graham and chosen performers within her dance company organised a dance recital at the Klaw Theatre (New York City).

 

Martha also entered an extended collaboration with Japanese-American pictorialist photographer named Soichi Sunami. Thereafter they together created some of the most iconic images of early modern dance.

 

What is Martha Graham technique and what does the movement consist of?

 

Graham technique is primarily based on "contraction and release" of one's body, and also involves using different parts of the body in opposition to one another, creating spirals for dramatic tension. It also incorporates formal exaggerations of "natural" movements.

 

Graham technique in particular, is designed to make dancers appear expressive and somewhat dramatic. Its movement vocabulary draws connections between the physical and emotional meanings of power, control, and a sense of vulnerability. Martha Graham was exceptionally flexible, and many of her technique's exaggerated movements were difficult or painful to perform, particularly for less-flexible dancers.

 

What is 'contraction' and 'release'?

 

The fundamental movement of Graham technique is the "contraction" and subsequent "release". In a classic Graham contraction, the spine is curved deeply backward, with the movement originating from the deep pelvic floor muscles. The spine must grow longer, not shorter, in a contraction. The cycle of contraction and release was developed as a stylized representation of breathing. Along with the "fall and recovery" dualism of Doris Humphrey's technique, it is one of the most important concepts in modern dance.

 

Graham sometimes criticized her dancers for failing to initiate from the pelvis. Graham famously quoted to her dancers to "move from the vagina".